Tag: god’s grace

Our Dwelling Place (Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Lord, you have been our dwelling place
    in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You turn us back to dust
    and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”
For a thousand years in your sight
    are like yesterday when it is past
    or like a watch in the night.

You sweep them away; they are like a dream,
    like grass that is renewed in the morning;
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
    in the evening it fades and withers…

Turn, O Lord! How long?
    Have compassion on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
    so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us
    and as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be manifest to your servants
    and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us
    and prosper for us the work of our hands—
    O prosper the work of our hands! (New Revised Standard Version)

Out of the 150 psalms we have in the biblical psalter, only this one is attributed to Moses. At Mount Sinai, when God was entering into covenant with the Israelites, the Lord had Moses come up the mountain to receive the Law. Meanwhile, the people began to rebel and became idolatrous.

And God was angry with them – so angry that the Lord was ready to do away with them all, and start from scratch with Moses. Yet, at that time, Moses interceded for the people and implored God saying:

“O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” (Exodus 32:11-13, NRSV)

Moses prayed for God to turn and change his mind. And, amazingly, God did.

In a terrible event of the golden calf experience, Moses had the wherewithal to step back and see the larger perspective.

And it is this view of time which governs the prayer of Psalm 90. This psalm sees the transience of human life and the permanence of an eternal God.  From this perspective, we gain wisdom in order to pray as we ought. The center of Moses’ prayer states:

For all our days pass away under your wrath;
    our years come to an end like a sigh.
The days of our life are seventy years
    or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
    they are soon gone, and we fly away.

Who considers the power of your anger?
    Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
So teach us to count our days
    that we may gain a wise heart. (Psalm 90:9-12, NRSV)

Today’s psalm lesson is a genuine prayer that begs for divine wisdom so that we may live with an eternal perspective. Armed with such a view, the psalmist prays for divine mercy so that our lives may be redeemed and we might know joy. And from wisdom and mercy, prayer is offered for divine blessing upon the work of our hands.

God’s presence ought to cause the people’s acknowledgment and obedience. If it doesn’t, then that presence can turn to wrath. This is precisely why we need wisdom to live rightly – to seek the Lord and know the spiritual laws of the universe. Ignorance leads to death, but wisdom to life.

We do not always live as we ought – which is why we need to seek grace and mercy from God. The psalmist trusts that God can redeem times of evil and the darkness of the human heart. The Lord is able to overcome for us what we cannot overcome for ourselves. God can (and will, in God’s own good time) deliver us from our unhealthy spiritual condition.

Moses led the people out of Egyptian slavery. But it was God who delivered the Israelites and was present with them always. Eventually, Moses died because God took him (Deuteronomy 34:5). And, at that time, the people had not yet entered the Promised Land; they were landless and homeless.

God, however, was their true dwelling place; the presence of God was there and continues to be there. The Lord has not taken a vacation. The Lord’s presence and power is still operative in this world. It’s the perspective of eternity.

Home, for the believer, is God. The Lord is our dwelling place, with us no matter where we go. God is the One who keeps redeeming our time, blessing us with joy, and prospering our work.

“O God, Our Help in Ages Past” by Isaac Watts, 1719, verses 1-3

O God, our Help in ages past,
our Hope for years to come,
our Shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal Home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
sufficient is Thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received its frame,
from everlasting Thou art God,
to endless years the same.

Fear vs. Faith (Numbers 13:1-2, 17-33; 14:1-9)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Spies Return with Discordant Views, by Yoram Raanan

The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders”…

When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 

When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.

They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account:

“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them:

“If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Then Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly:

“The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (New International Version)

“Pessimism has done infinitely more harm than atheism.”

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Fear can be debilitating. At its core, we fear either what we don’t know, or believe to be bad. For example, if I am convinced that my boss does not have my best interests at mind, then I will likely be afraid and hold back.

The majority of the ancient Israelites were paralyzed by fear because of the anxiety and fearfulness of those who came back from spying out the Promised Land. They had a low view of God. Yet Caleb, and only a few others, acknowledged that God is good for divine promises, and so, trusted the Lord completely in confidence, not fear.

If we view God as being angry all the time, then we will not use the incredible gifts given to us for fear of messing up and bringing divine wrath upon us. We will be plagued with uncertainty and only see giants in the land who we cannot begin to deal with.

Yet, if we commit ourselves to knowing God through seeking the divine will and trusting in divine promises, then we understand that God is gracious and generous, always having our backs. We live by faith, not by sight, and discern that giants in the land are really nothing more than gnats.

Fear is maybe the devil’s greatest tool to prevent God’s people from being productive and responsible in serving the church and the world. Beneath that fear are powerful feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, and a low view of self – which is really born of a low view of God. Being afraid wastes what impact a person could have for God, and waters-down life so that it’s ineffective.

Enjoy the Lord, and he will give what your heart asks.

Psalm 37:4, CEB

We are to enjoy the gracious and generous God; and in our enjoyment, the Lord places within us godly dreams that are a delight for God to fulfill. Our enjoyment of the Lord gives us the security and confidence to act upon those godly desires and wed them to divine promises from Holy Scripture.   

But put fear in the mix, and it dilutes and destroys everything. It makes you do nothing. And the fear is a result of not knowing the Lord, of not seeking God’s mind or will.

God had a grand vision and a big dream for the Israelites to enter the Promised Land. But ten of the twelve spies who came back after checking out the land were paralyzed by fear, feeling like grasshoppers next to the people in the land. 

Caleb and Joshua, however, had a different view of taking the land because they had a different view of God. They didn’t see giants – they saw a gracious and generous God who could easily take care of whoever might be in the land, and they wanted to act on the faith they had in a mighty and merciful God. 

The God of the other spies wasn’t big enough to handle the giants. Their low view of themselves as grasshoppers betrayed their low view of God.

“We wrap a lot of our fears in morbidly sanctified self-belittling.  We piously cover this self-despising and call it consecration and self-crucifixion.”

David Seamands

Too many people feel good about feeling bad – and then use those feelings to make spiritual excuses for not exploring what God promises, expects, commands, and dreams for them. 

It is high time for us to get into the world with our witness in a far greater way because we serve a God who sees giants as gnats; and we will, too, if we have a high view of God.

Yet, holding us back, is fear of criticism, of taking a risk, of going outside of the way we’ve always done it, and of what others may think or say. 

If you once dreamed something and you think your dream is dead because you destroyed it by your sins or bad habits, you are wrong. Dreams are destroyed by fear, by being tricked into thinking that we are nothing but grasshoppers and God doesn’t care, and so we do nothing.

Unfortunately, it appears the most common way of coping with feelings of fear, insecurity, and inferiority is by withdrawing from other people – because you cannot give yourself fully to your family, church, neighborhood, vocation, and the world without a healthy robust view of and relationship with God. 

Give God a chance to work in and through your life. May you step up and step out because you have a God behind you that is gracious and generous. Amen.

God Is Good, Idols Are Bad (2 Kings 17:7-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
 An Assyrian solider deporting people from their land (From the Southwest Palace of Tiglath-Pileser III at Nimrud, ca. 730-727 B.C.E.; British Museum.)

The Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt and rescued them from the power of Pharaoh (the king of Egypt). They worshiped other gods and lived by the customs of the nations that the Lord had forced out of the Israelites’ way. They also did what their kings wanted them to do.The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that weren’t right:

They built for themselves illegal places of worship in all of their cities, from the smallest watchtower to the largest fortified city.

They set up sacred stones and poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah on every high hill and under every large tree.

At all the illegal places of worship, they sacrificed in the same way as the nations that the Lord had removed from the land ahead of them.

They did evil things and made the Lord furious.

They served idols, although the Lord had said, “Never do this.”

The Lord had warned Israel and Judah through every kind of prophet and seer, “Turn from your evil ways, and obey my commands and decrees as I commanded your ancestors in all my teachings, the commands I sent to you through my servants the prophets.” But they refused to listen. They became as impossible to deal with as their ancestors who refused to trust the Lord their God. They rejected his decrees, the promise he made to their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They went after worthless idols and became as worthless as the idols. They behaved like the nations around them, although the Lord had commanded them not to do that. They abandoned all the commands of the Lord their God:

They made two calves out of cast metal.

They made a pole dedicated to the goddess Asherah.

They prayed to the entire army of heaven.

They worshiped Baal.

They sacrificed their sons and daughters by burning them alive.

They practiced black magic and cast evil spells.

They sold themselves by doing what the Lord considered evil, and they made him furious.

The Lord became so angry with Israel that he removed them from his sight. Only the tribe of Judah was left. Even Judah didn’t obey the commands of the Lord their God but lived according to Israel’s customs. So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants, made them suffer, handed them over to those who looted their property, and finally turned away from Israel. (God’s Word Translation)

The Flight of the Prisoners, by James Tissot, 1898, depicting the Babylonian exile from Jerusalem

The prophets had warned the northern kingdom of Israel; but they did not listen, nor did they heed the prophetic utterance. Israel then stood as an example and a warning to the southern kingdom of Judah; yet they, too, refused to learn from their brother’s downfall.

And even before the kingdom was split between Israel in the north and Judah in the south, the ancient Israelites had a troubling tendency to buck the Lord’s instructions and find other more and creative ways of expressing themselves spiritually.

Every generation of people are responsible for their own spirituality and their own actions in life. We, in our contemporary time and place, need to learn the lessons of the past – for we also are not an exception in history, as if we can do whatever we want without attending to the common good of all persons and worshiping in any sort of way we want.

The trouble with the ancient worshipers of Yahweh is that they decided to pick and choose whatever commands they wanted to follow, or not. They went through continual times of idolatry and forgot about God and God’s Word to them.

To respect and revere the Lord is to obey God’s instructions. To worship Yahweh is to have an undivided allegiance to God and God’s commands. The failure to obey is really a failure of faith.

The prophets Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah specifically called out the sinful practices of the people and their negligence in upholding basic social and economic justice for everyone. They condemned violence and oppression of the poor; and expressed the divine displeasure with taking advantage of the disadvantaged.

How to treat people and live well were explicitly spelled out in the entirety of God’s Law. Yet, the leaders and the people, as a whole, decided to go another way. They kept introducing idolatrous and unhealthy forms of worship and living. And it led to their ruin.

The ancient people were continually offered grace if they would only accept it. They could return to the Lord and come back to the true worship and obedience of the God who had rescued them from trouble again and again. Turning from their unholy practices, and turning back to Yahweh, would reverse God’s impending judgment. Yet, tragically, the people did not listen.

Idolatry is a failure to trust God, and to rely instead on something else which is not able to sustain a life. Unfortunately, those who create a god according to their own liking end up becoming like the thing they worship, that is, worthless.

The tragedy of the Israelites is that they were to be God’s people, the Lord’s treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation which brings blessing to the earth. Instead, they traded their meaning and purpose in life to imitate everyone else around them.

Sadly, people have felt throughout history, and even we ourselves today, that there is something else, other than God, that we need in order to be happy – something more important to your heart than the Lord – whether it is human acceptance and approval, social reputation, political power and control, or financial advantage and privilege.

Idolatry creates an ignoring of the divine in our life. We might even have the chutzpah to think we can challenge God, like some small yippee pup who growls and takes on the big dog, who knows that with an effortless paw across the body, could toss the prideful pup away.

Like a mother bird who scours the land for food to sustain the babies, and brings it back to their gaping mouths, God longs to provide us with a good and beautiful life – if we will but only receive it.

Listen, my people, I’m warning you!
    If only you would listen to me, Israel.
There must be no foreign god among you.
    You must not bow down to any strange deity.
I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up from Egypt’s land.
    Open your mouth wide—I will fill it up! (Psalm 81:8-10, CEB)

O Lord, as you gave us the greatest commandment, to love you with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, help us to love you above all else, putting you above the potential idols in our lives, including success, fame and wealth. May your benevolent kingdom come, and your moral and ethical will be done, here on this earth for this time, as it is always done in your heaven. Amen.

Idolatry Is the Tail Wagging the Dog (Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year A1 Comment

Praise the Lord!
    O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.
Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord
    or declare all his praise?
Happy are those who observe justice,
    who do righteousness at all times.

Remember us, O Lord, when you show favor to your people;
    help us when you deliver them,
that we may see the prosperity of your chosen ones,
    that we may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,
    that we may glory in your heritage.

Both we and our ancestors have sinned;
    we have committed iniquity, have done wickedly…

They made a calf at Horeb
    and worshiped a cast image.
They exchanged the glory of God
    for the image of an ox that eats grass.
They forgot God, their Savior,
    who had done great things in Egypt,
wondrous works in the land of Ham,
    and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
Therefore he said he would destroy them—
    had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him,
    to turn away his wrath from destroying them. (New Revised Standard Version)

Adoration of the Golden Calf, by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

When it comes to sin, especially the sin of idolatry, it’s imperative that we name it for what it is. It will do no good to fudge on it by saying that so-and-so struggles with it more than me, or that it’s not as bad as assault or murder.

No, we must call sinful idolatry just that, because the problem of idolatry is at the heart of humanity’s spiritual struggle. The first of the Ten Commandments frames it and names it squarely:

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of slavery; do not worship other gods.” (Exodus 20:2-3, NRSV)

And the second commandment straight up prohibits any manufacturing or worshiping of idols:

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them….” (Exodus 20:4-5, NRSV)

In the New Testament Gospels, Jesus also drew sharp lines between God and idolatry:

“No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matthew 6:24, NRSV)

The early church fathers (and mothers) forsook dependence on anything or anyone other than the one true God. Idolatry is an obsessive and fruitless search to satisfy a legitimate need in an illegitimate manner by giving oneself to someone or something other than the true object of the heart’s longing.

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

St. Augustine

None of this means that the material and physical world is somehow bad – that money, possessions, food, books, nature, and other people are objects to avoid – because they are most certainly not! The problem arises whenever we seek to replace God with the things God made, God’s own creation.

By seeking to save our souls and fill the emptiness in our spirits with more and more wealth, or more and better jobs, or more time and expense for reading, or just about any other activity or possession there is, those things which were given for our use and enjoyment and to be stewarded well by us, end up becoming the users and our masters.

Inanimate objects, ideas, and activities begin calling the shots and giving the commands about what we should do and not do. What we own, now owns us. Even the poor can succumb to idolatry through the sin of covetousness by wanting things they do not have in the belief that wealth and possessions will make their lives whole and worthy. But this breaks the tenth commandment:

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17, NRSV)

Nature and all the earth were formed by the Creator. And, as such, they too, give glory to God and recognize they themselves are not to be worshiped.

The heavens are telling the glory of God,
    and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
    and night to night declares knowledge. (Psalm 19:1-2, NRSV)

Genuine wealth, prosperity, happiness and peace are found in the Creator of all good things. It is God who will:

  • wipe every tear from our eyes (Isaiah 25:1-9)
  • provide protection and guidance through the hard times of life (Isaiah 54:17)
  • be present with us as we walk through the valley of despair and ascend the mountain of celebration and joy (Psalm 23)

The reason idolatry is so insidious and difficult to name is that our affections are typically on a good thing which God has created and given for us. It’s just that, over time and through an extended process, the tail begins to wag the dog. For example:

  • Humanity serves the Sabbath instead of the Sabbath serving humanity
  • Parishioners venerate a church building instead of the church building being a tool for ministry
  • People are slaves to their hobbies instead of the hobby serving the person
  • Spouses worship one another instead of worshiping the God who brought them together
  • Groups let their traditions hold them with an iron grip, instead of traditions being held loosely by groups

It could (and does) happen to each one of us. And when it does, we need the wisdom and humility to see it for what it has become. Then, confess it as idolatry, and accept the forgiveness which is freely available from the Divine.

Almighty and everlasting God: Not to us, but to your name we give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! Yet because of the idolatry in our hearts, we have strayed far from you. We have disobeyed your commandments; we have trusted our own judgement; and we wonder why we feel distant from you. We have worshipped idols of silver and gold—and idols of self and comfort. Forgive us for not loving you as we ought, not obeying you as we were taught, and not trusting that our forgiveness has been bought. Amen.